|
Ahhh, Summer. As June melts into July, and the temperatures rise, it's nice to stay inside with the AC and a good roleplaying group. I'm happy to say that both of the main games I'm in are actually moving along well, and there's the occasional small game during the week to spice things up. Some of my favorite small games have fallen by the way side, but with how chaotic everyone's lives are, that's to be expected.
June was a pretty busy month. I didn't get to squeeze in as much world development as I would have liked, but I got a couple of important, non-gaming things done, so at least I don't feel like I wasted my time. Oh, and I got my main Guild Wars character up to level 20 - woohoo! MMOs remain the best way to waste massive amounts of time all in the name of fun.
I'm still working on the country and continent for the two separate games. A friend of mine asked me just this past week when I'd be done with my game/world, but there's no way I'm restarting that project until after I finish these. Working on the two of them at once is bad enough - I already feel like I'm not really getting anywhere on either one, or on much of anything else for that matter (I haven't touched any of my fiction in months).
My main nitpick with game settings when I started this column was the usual dearth of "mundane" information - everything was focused on adventurers and what perils they would face, with very little on the culture, history, and way of life of people in the setting (except where it effected adventuring). This leaves one in the annoying position of always having to make stuff up for character backgrounds or more socially-driven games.
Now, I can certainly understand why published settings can't go into too much detail on these things. After all, when people buy source books, they want to get pertinent game information, and they don't want to have to spend $60 for a book because the publisher decided to include an extra 100 pages detailing marriage practices and the laws of every country. But honestly, considering how many supplements some game companies seem happy to print, I'm surprised that no one publishes a book or two specifically designed for social games (or for writing stories set in game settings), detailing the more mundane aspects of life.
One of the benefits of making your own world is that you can dedicate some time to this stuff, and you can do it right. You can also focus on the stuff you know you'll need, based on your knowledge of the people you'll be running the game for. For instance, if you know that some of your characters will eventually want to get married, you can work on wedding customs in advance. If one of your characters aspires to become mayor after retiring, you can work on the finer details of politics. But, then again, if you know your group is going to just want to go on dungeon crawls, you can focus on making new monsters and mapping out their lairs.
When working on the mundane details, it's important to be consistent. If you've stated that not everyone has what it takes to be an adventurer, don't make a culture and government that revolves around adventurers. Don't make every important NPC have class levels, unless you have classes specifically for NPCs. And whether or not adventurer-types are common, it's important to consider their impact on the culture.
In a serious game, working on these details can really help immerse your characters in the world and give the campaign a sense of realism. In a casual game, it's not as important, especially if your players are more interested in cracking wise than in focusing on the roleplay. Even so, it's best to have even a basic idea of how your culture works, in case someone does show an interest in some facet of it.
One thing that you may want to give some consideration to is funerals and disposal of the dead. Most fantasy games have some way to bring characters back from the dead, but oftentimes this is only available at higher levels. It's entirely likely that low-level characters may find themselves having to bury (or cremate) their comrades. Heck, we've averaged about one death per session in my current D&D game! You can just gloss over the funeral of the fallen character, or you can go into a little more detail - a lot of this depends on how much emotional investment there was in the character, and if the rest of the party even liked them.
At the same time, it's important to consider the effect that resurrection has on a world. If you've ever watched a cut scene in a video game where a character dies and asks "So why don't they just cast resurrection?" then you know what I'm talking about. Sure, not every minor person in the world who dies can be resurrected - but what about an assassinated king? Or a villain that the party thought they had killed?
You may even want to create laws governing the use of resurrection. Additionally, there may be ways to kill someone so completely that they can't be brought back. If you're making your own system, you can also put strong limitations on resurrection, regarding time or body condition. While it's nice for players to be able to bring back a beloved character who met an unfortunate end, one has to keep such things under control, or it becomes commonplace and can even ruin the game.
Odd. When I started writing this column, I didn't expect to end up talking about mortality, but there you have it. Tune in next month, when I may decide to write about the other inevitability - taxes. Happy gaming until then!
|